A Film Festival for All

learned that it would fit with everything the 309 house is doing in March."

Film festivals like these are formed with a desire to have a stronger local underground film scene and a curiosity as to what that might look like. Cummings believes that Pensacola needed an exploratory, collaborative and de-commodified space to make this happen.

"Having a face-to-face artistic community is important because it contextualizes your art in terms of people you can freely interact with and people who share experiences with you," Cummings said. "Without that, your only reference point for art making is a giant culture industry caught up in its own logic."

Before it closed locally, Sluggo's was a place to go to see low-budget, DIY video projects from time to time. Without places like it, creators often do not have the space to show off their work.

Ready, set, action. DIY Pensacola will be hosting its first-ever DIY Short Film Fest this Friday, March 25, and screening video projects submitted through an open call.

The festival, put on in part by the 309 Punk Project, is an opportunity for people to make movies with their friends or share a film they've been keeping to themselves.

Inspired by past showings of DIY films at the former Sluggo's locations around town, the event will once again bring low-budget short films to the community.

"I've had the idea of doing a DIY Short Film Fest for a while," said Ty Cummings, lead organizer of the DIY Short Film Fest. "I talked to Brandon Ballard from the 309 Punk Project and

"It's like how the local music scene can turn stale when there aren't any venues for new or underground artists to book," Cummings said. "Even if a lot of people are sharing art online or in big venues, without the right communal context, there is no world-building, and there is no scene."

"In a scene, people are exposed to the art of everyday people. Without that proximity, artists only make decisions in terms of commercial art," Cummings added.

Most of the submissions for the DIY Short Film Fest are art films, experimental films or comedy sketches. Some have been made by a single artist, while others have been made by 10 or more people. Films submitted have been shot on cell phones, film and digital cinema cameras, and everything in between.

One of the artists featured is Kodi Roberts, a Chicago/Pensacola-based filmmaker whose work specializes in ethnographic documentaries. New to filmmaking, her first film, titled "Fiddly Bits," aims to connect sociological examination with filmmaking. The film focuses on three friends and their conversation as they assemble and paint miniature figurines for use in a tabletop board game.

"Most broadly, the film considers how identity is navigated, negotiated and constituted through the medium of miniature wargame figurines," Roberts said. "Topics discussed include political geographies of the local wargaming community, gender stereotypes and counternarratives among hobbyists, and the extent to which customizing one's miniatures may or may not be an articulation of the self."

In many ways, this film has served as an overture to her broader work, both as a researcher and filmmaker. A graduate student at DePaul University, Roberts' film is a companion piece to her academic research.

"I was curious about the mismatch between some academic research and my friends' own accounting of why they participate in tabletop wargaming," Roberts said. "Much of the current literature focuses on abstract ideas of politics and violence, without looking at the actual gaming habits or self-description of tabletop gamers. I knew many hobbyists who talked about their miniature crafts as creative, open-ended and even liberatory explorations of self-identity. I suspected that an ethnographic film would be an effective way to bring these latter voices into conversation with stereotypes about the politics of wargaming."

"Fiddly Bits" took about two months to research, edit and produce. Even just a few minutes of edited footage has several hours of raw footage behind it and even more hours of planning to capture that footage.

"From the outset, I knew I wanted 'Fiddly Bits' to be seen and engaged with not only by academics, but also by creatives, nerds and cool punks in communities I have been a part of," Roberts said.

"In this way, without venues like 309 and the DIY Short Film Fest and their audiences, a film like 'Fiddly Bits' could never be fully realized."

Today, most filmmakers are aware of how standardized video and film have become in terms of content and technique. Even so, there is much uncharted territory when it comes to moving images. The DIY Short Film Festival encourages filmmakers to explore this uncharted territory and traverse beyond their imagination.

"A lot of film fests have essentially become showrooms for distributors to shop for projects," Cummings said. "When that's the case, there's little reason to accept or submit a film that doesn't have commercial appeal or a strong promotional campaign. For people who have careers in the industry, this model is fine. But for a DIY scene, it can't be like that. It has to be open to people who have no money or equipment and prioritize meaning, joy and exploration over production."

Cummings says the call for submissions for this first festival has been promising. People are digging up old projects, collaborating with new people and trying filmmaking for the first time. He added that this is a good sign for what the film scene could be like in Pensacola's future.

"I think the idea of having your art screened at a local DIY fest is just the right context for a lot of people," Cummings said. "Even for people who are already passionate about making videos and movies, it can quickly slouch into portfolio-building or trying to fit their aspirations into a scalable commercial venture. When you explicitly ask people to make anything they want and share it with their community, with no other pretense, I think it gets the right gears turning." {in}

Pensacola Diy Short Film Fest

WHAT: A screening of short from video projects

WHEN: 5:30 p.m. Friday, March 24

WHERE: 309 Punk Project, 309 N. Sixth Ave.

DETAILS: @diypensacola